Cafe choice: web extra

Published: Summer 2009

*The Heart of Notre Dame: Spiritual Reflections For Students, Parents, Alumni, and Friends*, _Nicholas Ayo, CSC, ’56, ’62M.A._ (Corby Books). A portable retreat of insights and challenges, consolation and encouragement. Father Ayo calls readers to ponder what Notre Dame, the place and its people, have to teach us and ask of us.

*Steady Girl*, _Paula Sinclair_ (Old Sombrero Music). The singer-songwriter takes on a traditional country sound in such songs as “Blue-Eyed Kentucky Boy” and “When a Heart Breaks.” Rob Barteletti ’71 collaborated on five songs and co-produced the 11-track CD, which also includes a cover of Steve Earle’s “Fearless Heart.”
*Comfort and Mirth*, _Lori Joan Swick ’01MTS_ (TCU Press). The novel traces the life of a young woman living in early 20th century Austin, Texas, as she attempt to find her way as a wife and mother while the suffrage movement captures her attention.
*Damnyankee: A WWII Story of Tragedy and Survival off the West of Ireland*, _Thomas L. Walsh ’62_ (Outskirts Press). A U.S. Navy submarine patrol bomber ditched off the west coast of Ireland in 1944 in a big storm. Four decades later a man who was a crew member on that plane arrives in Clifden, County Galway, to try and reconstruct that tragedy and honor those who lost their lives that night.
*A Wild Father’s Day*, _Sean Callahan ’87_, illustrations by Daniel Howarth (Albert Whitman & Company). Colorful Fathers’ Day adventures as Dad and the kids act like animals all day long. Designed for preschoolers.
*Money: Make, Manage, & Multiply It!* _Don Barkman ’69_ (The Business Center). A guide to the essentials of managing money, from understanding your paycheck to managing debt and credit and building wealth by investing. Practical worksheets are included.
*Frugal Cool: How to Get Rich — Without Making Very Much Money*, _John F. Gaski ’71, ’73MBA_ (Corby Books). Using humor, the author suggests that changes in attitude about frugality and saving money can help the reader reach his chosen financial aims. The foreword is by former ND football head coach Ara Parseghian. The author is an associate professor of marketing at Notre Dame.
*Why We Are Always Broke: Things We Need to Know About the Economy*, _Rev. William Crumley, CSC, ’59_ (Frontlist Publishing). Father Crumley discusses how "money has been used as a manipulative tool throughout U.S. history." He also looks at the power of the Federal Reserve.
*The Films of the Nineties: The Decade of Spin*, _William J. Palmer ’65, ’69Ph.D._ (Palgrave Macmillan). In his cultural analysis of movies and TV shows of the 1990s, the author looks at “spin,” the power to turn history into one’s own agenda. This social, political and sexual history is replete with a discussion of hundreds of films.
*The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How*, _Daniel Coyle ’87_ (Bantam). Whether it’s coaching soccer, teaching a child to play the piano or perfecting one’s golf swing, the author argues that talent can be maximized. The secret to acquiring skill, Coyle writes, comes down to three elements: the right kinds of practice, coaching and motivation.
*Praying the Psalms in Christ*, _Laurence Kriegshauser, OSB, ’61_ (University of Notre Dame Press). The Benedictine monk, using the Hebrew text, offers a verse-by-verse commentary of each of the 150 psalms, helping Christians pray the psalms with an understanding of their Christological meaning.
*Letter to Lincoln*, _Daniel F. Stevens ’44_ (PublishAmerica). The novel begins on a British steamer and traces the adventures of a boy named Alex and his father’s friend, Angus, who is carrying a secret letter to Abraham Lincoln. Two agents are also on the steamer, with orders to find and destroy the letter.
*A Backward Glance: The Southern Renascence, the Autobiographical Epic, and the Classical Legacy*, _Joseph R. Millichap ’62M.A., ’70Ph.D._ (University of Tennessee Press). An examination of Southern writers Ralph Ellison, William Faulkner, Caroline Gordon, Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren, Eudora Welty and Thomas Wolfe and their influences.
*Deranging English/Education: Teacher Inquiry, Literary Studies, and Hybrid Visions of “English” for 21st Century Schools*, _John A. Staunton ’91_ (NCTE 2008). The author, a professor of English education and American literature, uses various characters to offer a vision of what “English” can be for today’s schools. The book is part of the Refiguring English Studies Series.
*Larry Brown and the Blue-Collar South*, _edited by Jean W. Cash and Keith Perry_ (University Press of Mississippi). A critical assessment of Brown (1951-2004), who wrote about the working class, poverty, rural life and war. Contributors include John A. Staunton ’91, who wrote an article on Brown’s posthumous novel, “A Miracle of Catfish and the Recursion of Art.”
*The Scandal of Reform: The Grand Failures of New York’s Political Crusaders and the Death of Nonpartisanship*, _Francis S. Barry ’97_ (Rutgers University Press). New York’s political history has been fraught with corruption, crusaders and reform wars. The author examines the frontlines of political reform and offers an analysis of the city’s 2003 referendum debate on nonpartisan elections.
*My Word!: Plagiarism and College Culture*, _Susan D. Blum_ (Cornell University Press). The ND associate professor of anthropology suggests that instructors need to treat plagiarism as an opportunity to educate students about intellectual property and originality. "If our goal is actually education," she says, "then a renewed communication between teachers and students is absolutely essential."
*Images, Iconoclasm, and the Carolingians*, _Thomas F.X. Noble_ (University of Pennsylvania Press). The Notre Dame professor of history surveys the Western response to Byzantine iconoclasm — 726-787 C.E. and 815-842 C.E. — when religious images were deemed idols and ordered destroyed.
*Sister and Brothers of the Common Life: The Devotio Moderna and the World of the Later Middle Ages*, _John Van Engen_ (University of Pennsylvania Press). The Notre Dame professor of history here brings to life the communities and beliefs of the Devout, a religious movement of the late 1300s and early 1400s. The northern European men and women did not take vows but gathered in communes and centered their lives on private devotion.
*The Forgotten Four: Notre Dame’s Best Backfield Ever and the 1953 Undefeated Season*, _Donald J. Hubbard ’84J.D. and Mark O. Hubbard ’72_ (Corby Books). The story of backs John Lattner, Neil Worden, Ralph Guglielmi and Joe Heap, who played on an undefeated team that missed being named national champions, probably because of the tie with Iowa, in coach Frank Leahy’s final season.
*Fighting to Give: The Jimmy Culveyhouse Story*, _Christopher Stevens ’74_ (BookSurge Publishing). Jimmy Culveyhouse, ND class of 1976, was rejecting three times before getting into Notre Dame. Once there, he got on the golf team, where he set a course record of 64, which still stands. Today Culveyhouse is on a ventilator, suffering the debilitating effects of ALS, but he continues to raise money to find a cure. All proceeds from the sale of this book go to ALS and cancer research. See jimculveyhouse.com for more information or to purchase the book.